Wednesday, October 31, 2007

"Mike And Mike In The Morning" Heading For NASCAR

Flying a bit below The Daly Planet radar, we would like to thank the alert reader who informed us that ESPN's dynamic radio duo of Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic will be heading for the Texas Motor Speedway in a couple of days.

On Friday, November 2nd, the Mike and Mike in the Morning Show that began on ESPN Radio and has now migrated over to ESPN2 and a High Definition TV studio will originate on-location at TMS.

The program will air from 5AM to 9AM Local Texas Time, and will originate from the Speedway's Cafeteria in the infield. That seems to be a strange location, but I am sure it is due to weather and logistical issues.

The good news is that fans with an Infield Parking Pass can attend the live show for free. Once again, all infield campers are invited to show-up and have some fun with Mike and Mike live on both ESPN Radio and ESPN2. That should be interesting.

If a Daly Planet reader has the chance to attend, we certainly would like to hear about it and perhaps get some pictures for our site. These guys are very influential, and to have them on-hand will hopefully raise the profile of NASCAR to a new group of fans.

TMS has Eddie Gossage, who is a good promoter, as the head of the Speedway. Gossage cut his teeth with Humpy Wheeler in Charlotte, and hopefully he has made arrangements for some key drivers to stop-by and say an early morning hello.

With the right guests, and the friendly dynamic of the fans being there live, this could be a really good shot in the arm for ESPN just when they needed it.

25 comments:

I love watching and listening to Mike & Mike every morning so I am thrilled to hear that they are doing their show from the track. Hopefully it will give NASCAR some good exposure and will allow NASCAR to be integrated into the program more regularly after this appearance.

Currently, other than the day after the Daytona 500, the only time NASCAR is ever mentioned on Mike & Mike is during a brief sponsored segment on Fridays where some company "brings you" a brief look ahead to the coming weekend's race.

I'm not expecting intrique breakdowns of pit strategies that happened in the races or a breakdown of the fall-out of the go-or-go situation that developed in qualifying on the previous Friday, but simple mentions like "Jimmie Johnson won the race yeseterday" on Mondays would be a good start to broadening the exposure of NASCAR on the ESPN family of networks.

It should be good for something. Talk about two guys out of their element. I used this pic because when they had Danica Patrick on she overwhelmed both of them, and then did the Golic donut trick.

First, she looked great and was totally tough as nails, which they loved. Then, just like Golic, she stuffed her mouth full of Krispy Kreme donuts and read movie quotes until Greenberg guessed them. It was pretty daggone funny.

When they passed her the donut box, she batted her eyes and said to them "aren't these suppose to be hot?" Both of them about keeled over.

If Eddie Gossage can get some characters like Tony or Elliott Sadler or Kevin Harvick on, it could turn into a blast.

I should be fun to see Mike and Mike in Texas. I don't think either of them "get" NASCAR, but they are fun guys.

I do hope they have a line-up of guests, because there is no way in G_d's green earth they'd be able to talk about NASCAR on their own for more than 10 minutes. It would be a depressingly long 4 hours.

When they talk about weekend sports, they never chat about NASCAR. (They even had Erik K as a guest once and he never mentioned the Sunday race.) Anyway, they may enjoy themselves and add it from now on.

I hope people don't expect them to talk that much racing....They do many remotes and it still is their normal show, just from a different location..Next Monday they are in Pittburgh and won't talk about the game the whole show...It is also a radio show first, with TV along for the ride. I think the show is great.

JD- I happened to see M & M one morning this week or last week mentioning their upcoming visit to Texas - and I did not see any smirks, rolling eyes, etc. I think they are both pros and will treat their visit to TMS with appropriate respect. Now if Eddie G. can get Bruton to appear on the show it could be memorable.

I'll make sure to DVR the show. JD, I like your suggestion of having Eddie Gossage suggest guests like Stewart and Sadler. But do you know why more NASCAR drivers don't appear on shows like this that are more lighthearted (the way you describe Danica)? Other than Jeff Gordon (SNL, Regis and Kelly), why is no one else out there on mainstream radio/TV?. Why is no one hosting and performing skits on the ESPYs (and SNL) like LeBron James, Derek Jeter, and Peyton Manning? Why is no one hip-hop dancing on the ESPYs like Danica? Is it that they don't get asked?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. says he is too shy to appear on those shows (and he HAS been asked), but it seems he'd be the natural candidate. Tony Stewart says he hates going on Regis during the Chase and all the other PR stuff even though he is a funny guy. I'm sure Gordon gets nervous about everything he's asked to do on Regis, but he goes with the flow - dancing, cooking, whatever and that's why non-fans know who he is.

The only driver I've seen lately on TV that exposed him to a different audience was Jimmie Johnson and wife on the Tyra Banks show. He was very patient with Tyra's sweet but clueless questions about racing and answered them sincerely, participated in her clothing pit crew challenge -"how fast can Jimmie Johnson get dressed for a date with his wife?!" You could tell by the camera shots of the audience that they ended up really liking him and his wife. And it was a smart move -how often does a NASCAR driver get 30 minutes on a talk show devoted to him?

Rambling here, but do you know why we don't see our drivers more on the more general shows?

NASCAR is the only sport set-up without a lot of rules for the athletes. They are fundamentally independent contractors who make their way through the sport just obeying the rules.

In other professional sports, like the NBA, the athletes are used extensively in coordinated media activities from the time they come into the league. This consists at first of Regional Sports Network interviews and appearances on coach's shows and the like. It also begins with regional TV commercials for local products.

As the athlete grows in career stature, they can gradually step-up into the national TV spotlight without being intimdated. This is one of the biggest drawbacks of NASCAR, they still have the old style (Jim Hunter) media and "deadline" press environment.

Of course, the rest of the world is on myspace and IM'ing and texting, but NASCAR still has press row and nothing else.

Getting NASCAR up to speed on this issue has been worse than pulling teeth with a nail file. SPEED has been the one network that has invested time and effort in helping drivers become comfortable on the air.

Folks like John Roberts, Steve Byrnes, and Wendy Venturini really deserve credit for being able to help young and non-media saavy drivers get comfortable with the camera.

When a driver sees the SPEED Channel mic flag, they know they are not going to get run over by a train and then embarrassed on NASCAR Now for a solid week.

If Dale Jarrett can get himself some additional TV exposure early next year, I would look for him to begin to play a major role in the new effort at ESPN to make peace between the network and the NASCAR community.

A couple more stick and ball radio types trying to prop up next to the NASCAR media machine, whats the big deal? If NASCAR had the IRL ratings you couldnt melt and pour Mike & Mike on NASCAR. Mike and Mike are the reason why real NASCAR fans have to watch that stupid "Loose & Tight" illustration for the millionth time.

They broadcast from the speedway cafeteria because it's one of the few places in the infield that's big enough to hold more than a handful of people.

This will be the third year in a row they've broadcast from TMS the Friday before the Dickies 500.

As usual, they'll mix in a few live guests and a few guests via phone. Of the live guests, they have scheduled (cutely) former Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson and NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson.

And, you're right: M&M are not exactly known for talking up NASCAR very much. The SportsCenter updates (which lead into each segment) do mention the race winners every Monday, even if M&M don't say anything more about it. They have, at different times, had on Richard Petty and Jeff Gordon as guests, so it's not as though they ignore it completely. (Gordon was on within the last month.) That said, neither Mike grew up in a NASCAR environment (Golic's from Cleveland, Greeny's from Manhattan) and so they just don't know the sport and its history. On the show, they stick to the sports whose histories they do know: football, basketball, and baseball. That's more the reason why you don't find them talking about NASCAR despite its popular support.

Funny, wonder if anyone on this thread even saw their show from the track the last couple of years??? Bitching already.... ESPN promoted NASCAR from a track that they did not even broadcast from the last couple of years!!!

The Carey and Coffey Show from 940/1510 ESPN Radio always broadcasts live from Dover and New Hampshire. And they don't ask the same stupid questions to drivers like "How does the car look today" and "What are you hoping to get out of today's race". Check them out online at www.careyandcoffey.com. They are funny.

The reason I really like this blog is because I learn something new almost every day. I never really thought about the point-of-view that the reason we don't see a lot of NASCAR related news stories from the stick & ball sports media might be caused by NASCAR and the drivers not really making themselves available for the shows. Granted, they will have to do some slightly humiliating things (Danica having to talk with donuts crammed in her mouth was a great example), but as long as it is in good taste, the participants have to realize that sports is really about entertainment. Doing shows like Regis & Kelly allows the drivers to appear down to earth, and seem less up tight.

Drivers didn't used to stand around giving autographs, but Richard Petty saw the value in it and it paid off for him and NASCAR. What should happen Friday morning is for the drivers to land their private jets, come out of their million dollar motor homes, and take a moment to eat donuts with Mike and Mike. I could think of worse ways to spend a morning!

Ritchie said: "I never really thought about the point-of-view that the reason we don't see a lot of NASCAR related news stories from the stick & ball sports media might be caused by NASCAR and the drivers not really making themselves available for the shows."

Yep, Dale Jr.'s last big appearance was the MTV Awards years ago. He did appear for a segment of Jon Stewart last year and I think he's on Regis and Kelly as a guest once every year or two. But the other shows like Saturday Night Live he says he wouldn't be comfortable. For the sport's most popular driver, he really doesn't do a lot of live TV interviews/appearances on "mainstream" shows; he probably should do more. He seems fine with the sports-oriented shows like Cold Pizza/First Take.

Now that I think about it, I never see Tony Stewart on a lot of TV either, even when he won the title in 2005.

Maybe they'll follow Ritchie's suggestion and show up as a surprise guests on Mike and Mike tomorrow.

Does anyone see a funny coincidence that the two guests on the Mike and Mike show are both named the same just different spellings?

Also, if I am not mistaken Michael Waltrip did an appearance on Blue Collar TV when it was showing. Carl Edwards appeared on the show 24. Some of the other drivers have appeared on the soaps. I do agree though that it would be nice to see them on more mainstream shows and the like so that they can bring Nascar to the broader markets and bring Nascar more exposure.

That's interesting to me that Jimmie Johnson is on Mike and Mike tomorrow. Because the past few months I've noticed that the friends of mine who are not NASCAR fans are starting to recognize Jimmie Johnson. For the longest time they only recognized Jeff Gordon, who everybody loves even though (at the most) they only watch the end of races or the highlights. Junior doesn't really register with them; even though he's in a bunch of music videos and ads they can't remember him for some reason (though they don't dislike him).

But all of a sudden, everybody likes Jimmie and talks about his billboards and tells me when they see him on the news. (I live in the Carolinas.) He's so cute, his wife Chandra is so pretty, blah blah blah. He's not in a huge amount of commercials that I see (certainly not as many as Jeff and Junior), so I'm not sure why this has changed.

It may be for maximum media exposure you have to have a championship PLUS do all those media appearances. It probably doesn't hurt that he's won so much and is contending for another Cup title. Whatever Jimmie's doing as far as media appearances, it's making him more recognizable, at least with the outside world. Since I know how much he's despised in the inner NASCAR fandom, I find it fascinating.

Daly Planet Editor said... "I only wish that we could have gotten Greenie in a car for a couple of laps"

Actually, the first year he was at TMS, they did just that: he did a ride-along where they recorded his audio. As you might guess (given that Greeny is the "sissy boy" to Golic's "manly man"), the audio is mostly Greeny going "Okay, we're going very fast now. Very fast! Really close to the wall there! Oh my gosh!", the usual Greeny schtick. I think while he probably had a new-found appreciation for the sport after that, it didn't necessarily convert him to listening to MRN on Sunday afternoons.

As an interesting side note, "Joaquin", one of the show's producers, is involved in NASCAR as a race official. So it's not as though the guys are totally ignorant about it, even if it's not something that gets a lot of love.

FYI, Sterling Marlin and Larry Hammond also did the Blue Collar show. It was a very funny skit with Jeff as DW and Larry Mac calling the delivery of a baby like it was a race. At the end Sterling was revealed to be the doctor.